


The Scully Sister

by Minuete



Series: Perspectives [2]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Melissa Scully POV, Pre-Series, Season 1, Season 2, first person POV, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18903406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minuete/pseuds/Minuete
Summary: A heavy Melissa Scully-centric storyline as she experiences the early MSR.





	1. Childhood Notion

**Author's Note:**

> While drafting this storyline, I wanted to flesh out Melissa’s character background that we never had a chance to see in the show.

Since I was little, I’ve always had a morbid fascination with death.  It must have stemmed from a funeral my family attended when I was only 4 years old for a great-aunt whom I was named after on Dad’s side, but I remember thinking how peaceful she looked in her sleep despite the heavy makeup.  I was holding onto one of Dad’s hands while Bill held the other.  All three of us stared at her still form until Mom hurried us away with Dana in her arms as we held up the line.

It wasn’t until I was thirteen while watching a documentary on Cleopatra in class when I had this fatalistic view of my life: that I was going to die young.  Up until elementary school, I was a straight-A student doing what was expected in the Scully household.  I didn’t know why Cleopatra sparked this notion in my head.  Was it because she was allowed to choose her manner of death? Was it painful to die via a poisonous snake bite? What were her last thoughts on earth?  Did she believe in the Afterlife like all her followers?

I posed these questions to Mom one day while she was prepping for dinner in the kitchen.  Dad had been underway for the past five months, leaving Mom all alone with us four kids.  She looked at me impatiently with her stock answer: “I don’t know, but I’m sure God does.”

God. Yet another theology I had to grapple with once I grasped onto the notion that I would die young. We attended Mass every Sunday dressed in our Sunday best; it was our one constant during Dad’s time in the military. Confirmation was around the corner for me as the nuns were constantly bombarding us with psalms and passages to memorize.  Bill got confirmed, much to Mom’s relief and delight, as we all went home and celebrated his dedicated soul to God with his favorite meal.  

After Bill’s led prayer when we gathered around the dining table, Mom started going around the table asking how everyone’s day was going and what our plans were the rest of the week as we were eating.  _We’re kids, Mom.  What plans should we have besides school and play?_  Charlie, bless his soul, told Mom he planned to stick up for a kid that was being bullied in class.  Dana, the overachiever, wanted to ask her teacher for extra credit on the history project regarding California missions on top of the required diorama all students had to turn in.  Once it was my turn to speak, I blurted, “I’m not going to get confirmed next year.”

Everyone stared at me wide-eyed, except for Mom who pursed her lips together and gave me The Look. “Melissa Grace Scully! What do you mean you’re not going to participate in the Confirmation?” she asked.

“I mean exactly that, Mom. I’m not doing it.” 

“Why?” she asked.  I didn’t have an answer for my decision then. It wasn’t until a decade later when I realized my answer was that I didn’t believe in organized religion and being herded to believe a certain way.  It didn’t matter at the time anyway.  Mom dismissed my statement simply saying that we would table this topic as she moved onto Bill and asked about his plans for the week.

And just like that, I created a tear in the Scully household seam.

 


	2. Seeking Answers To Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre-series, dialogue taken from “Christmas Carol”.

By the time I was in my junior year of high school, I was dubbed the rebellious Scully.  The unruly, free-spirited child.  The black sheep.  I skimmed through my classes, not paying any attention to them like Bill and Dana.  What I lacked in academics, I gained in spiritual knowledge.  I soaked up as much as I could on Eastern religions through library books and from practicing classmates.  I befriended a group of girls who practiced Wicca in school. They introduced me to a local group that met up every week at a New Age spiritual store in town.  It was because of them that I dabbled into numerology, tarot reading, crystal healing, and Quija.  From my short time learning of the various theologies, learned that we as humans are all interconnected in one way or another.  We are all weaved into this complicated tapestry of life.  Despite my dislike of organized religion and the rigidity of Catholicism, I loved the Christmas season.  I helped Mom with the decorative festivities around the house, while the entire family helped decorate the tree promptly after Thanksgiving.  One particular Christmas Eve, neither Dana or I could sleep, so I convinced her to sneak downstairs to see what Santa got us.

“Look at all the presents!” Dana exclaimed excitedly.  There were tons of presents under the tree. More so than the previous years.  Was it due to Bill leaving for college?

I shushed her. “Dana, quiet, they might hear us.” We both walked to the tree and sat among the presents. Dana reached for a rather large present and shook it.

“This one's for me,” she replied. I rolled my eyes.

“You wish! That's for Billy, you dope.” I rummaged around for presents with my name on them.  She grabbed another presents this time a thin, square-shaped present.  She beamed at me.

“This has got to be it! This has got to be Hotel California!” Her voice grew loud from her excitement. I shushed her again.

“You'll wake everybody!” I hissed at her as I motioned her to quiet down.   She picked up another present which was rectangular in shape the same time I found one the same size as hers.

“I wonder what this is,” she said.  I raised mine up for her to see.

 “I don't know, but I got one too.”  Dana was about to shake her present when we were both startled by Mom’s voice from the stairway.

“You don't have to shake it, Dana,” she told her.  She then addressed the both of us, “You can open those now.” We both smiled sheepishly at each other and unwrapped our presents at the same time.  My white box held a delicate cross.  I stared at it ambivalently, then remembered my manners.

“Thanks, Mom,” I murmured as I took the necklace out its box.  The cross swung slightly back and forth twinkling at me from the Christmas tree lights.  I looked up and saw Mom speaking softly to Dana as she unlatched the necklace.

“Your grandmother gave me a cross just like that when I was about your age,” she said to Dana as she placed it around Dana’s neck.

“It's pretty,” Dana replied.

“It means God is with you. He'll watch over you wherever you go.” Mom looked at me pointedly.  I knew Mom’s message to me:  I was her prodigal daughter. Dana recently got confirmed at the local church and this must have been Mom’s way to mark the occasion.  Was this cross meant to be my confirmation gift, or in this case a reminder that I didn’t live up to her expectation as a Scully?  I turned away from her gaze as I placed the cross back in its box.  I excused myself from the living room telling them I was tired. Christmas was starting to become my least favorite holiday.


	3. The Porch Talk

I was trying to be sneaky. It was past midnight and all the lights in the house were turned off. I quietly made my way to the front door, but saw a puff of smoke from around the corner of the porch.  Holding my breath, hoping it wasn’t  Mom, I peeked and saw Dana smoking one of Mom’s cigarettes.  Was she trying to get caught?  I cleared my throat causing Dana to jump in her chair and drop the cigarette from her mouth. 

“Jesus, Missy! You scared me!”

“Careful about leaving behind evidence, Dana!” I chastised her as I quickly walked to pick up the cigarette and snuffed it out in the ash tray. I flashed her a teasing smile. “Well, little Miss Dana Katherine Scully! I never knew you had it in you!”

“Shut up, Missy! I’ve been stressing out from studying for finals lately.” I shook my head, scoffing.  _Puh-lease_ , Dana has an IQ of a genius.

“You’re such a poser,” I said. “You’re on this punk rocker phase with your loud unruly hair and heavy eyeliner, but deep down you’re still that girl who loves year-end science projects and math decathlons.”

“I hate school.”

“You do, huh?  Tell me: how many piercings do you have?”  Dana glared at me as she chewed on her bottom lip. A smug smile crossed my lips. “I thought so.  Dana, if you’re doing this to nab a guy, then he’s definitely not the one for you.  If you’re doing this to get attention, then believe me, you got it.  Just don’t hide the genius that you are. That’s the real you.”

She swallowed and blinked at me several times before she gave me a lopsided grin and mumbled, “Who made you the identity guru?”

I sighed.  I shouldn’t be one to judge since I was sneaking back into the house just past midnight.  Mom thought the worst of me when she would catch me returning home during an ungodly hour. Illicit thoughts sprang up in her mind and she would lecture me on chastity, the whole nine yards a Catholic mother would say to a prodigal daughter.  I didn’t bother correcting her assumption. Then, one day, she did the unthinkable:  she handed me a pack of condoms and told me to practice safe sex.  I nearly died from mortification. I must have been gaping because Mom told me to “pull myself together”, that they’re just condoms.  Before she left the room I shared with Dana, she looked over her shoulder and told me to keep this secret between us.  As in, don’t let Dad know about my supposed promiscuity. 

Dana pulled me back to the present as I watched her place her bare feet up onto the porch chair, curling herself into a tight ball.  “Where have you been anyway?”

I smiled my mysterious smile she hated so much and replied in a teasing manner, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Ugh. Forget I asked.” I looked at her solemnly.

“You’re the smartest girl I know,  Dana. You’re going places with that noggin of yours.” She returned my gaze with a doe-eyed look of her own.

“Well, where will you be going? I thought you’ll be attending the community college?”

I shrugged. “I’m thinking of skipping town once I graduate.  I feel so cooped up here.  I need space, actual air to breathe.”

“Have you planned this trip out? Where will you live? What will you do once you get there?”

“The runes will guide me.” I inwardly smiled as I see Dana roll her eyes at me.  She didn’t believe in signs the way I do.  I proceeded to tell her that I saved up enough money working at the spiritual shop to book myself a one-way ticket to San Francisco, and a rental deposit for a potential room to rent from a friend of a friend of a friend in the New Age circle.  The expression in Dana’s eyes turned to sorrow.

“I’m going to miss you, Missy.”  I hugged her as my throat felt constricted.

“I’ll visit every so often, and I’ll only be a phone call away.”  Dana shook her head, and returned my hug.

“You’re not going to visit, Missy.  You’ll be a free bird letting the wind carry you to places for you to explore.  How I envy you.”

I placed a kiss on Dana’s forehead, at a loss of what to say. 


End file.
